Chapter 29: The Shadow’s Confrontation

Hoo… hoo… hoo…

The world before her swayed precariously.

A ceaseless buzzing filled her ears, mingling with the heavy sound of her own ragged breaths.

Her mind felt utterly blank, as ancient, decaying dust assailed her nostrils.

“What… what just happened?”

Baoyu only recalled the grotesque Corroder launching an attack against her.

Unable to flee, she had watched, transfixed, as the assault drew near.

Then… then her memory seemed to lapse for a fleeting moment.

Her violently thrumming heart pulled at her with a faint discomfort.

Instinctively, Baoyu tilted her head slightly, her gaze drifting to her right.

What met her eyes was a black, sharply pointed spearhead, bristling with malevolence.

It had plunged directly into the ground beside her head, almost grazing her ear, missing her by mere millimeters.

Just as the attack was about to strike her, she thought she saw something flash past.

Baoyu couldn’t trust her own eyes, yet seeing was believing.

The attack, which should have hit her, had inexplicably veered off course at the very last second.

“Damn it, she’s caught up!”

Her thoughts were abruptly shattered by an unexpected, terrified cry from the Corroder.

Baoyu spun around, observing the Corroder as it lashed out wildly at its surroundings.

Its rapidly extending tentacles repeatedly pierced nearby walls, shattering every window within sight.

‘What is it doing? There’s clearly no enemy—’

‘No, there is.’

Incredibly, something truly bewildering was moving around the Corroder, its form utterly impossible to discern, like a shadow seamlessly blended with the night.

“Where, where! Get out…!”

“Boom—!”

The Corroder’s voice was swallowed by another deafening roar.

Black, copious amounts of black, splattered everywhere before her eyes, just like what she had witnessed on the street.

Once the foul black rain had ceased, a new figure stood between the Corroder and the Magical Girl.

It was a girl clad in black.

“Why, I…”

“Silence.”

The girl wielded a massive black hammer, disproportionate to her slender frame, and drove the Corroder’s body deep into the ground.

Ignoring its wails and pleas for mercy, she merely brought the hammer down once more, splattering everything nearby with the ominous black substance.

During this, the Corroder attempted to resist, but the girl, dressed in a military-style uniform, would consistently vanish from sight in ways utterly incomprehensible to the naked eye.

As the tentacles struck empty air, she would abruptly reappear to land another blow, rendering all of the Corroder’s movements ineffective.

Finally, the figure stood in the black world she had created, facing the Corroder whose body was utterly destroyed, leaving only its head, still retaining a human appearance.

She lifted her boot, planted it on its head, and gazed down at its face, which was now contorted with terror.

“Wh-why? Aren’t we the same kind? Why would you—oof!”

The girl seized it by the scalp, lifting its head, and her violet eyes scrutinized it intently.

“This very mouth, wasn’t it, that kept repeating ‘I am human’ to beg for mercy at first? How is it that only a few minutes later, you’re claiming kinship with me? Your lying tongue, it would be better if I just ripped it out.”

“Ooh—ooh—!”

As if genuinely terrified she would follow through, the Corroder decisively dissolved its mouth into a pool of black liquid.

The scalp too began to ooze liquid, but the girl’s hand firmly halted the transformation.

The Corroder, which had so grievously wounded Baoyu, was now a helpless prey in her grasp.

“I gave you a chance, and you proved yourself—you attacked the Magical Girl without hesitation when she approached, completely defenseless, intending to help you, didn’t you?”

Meeting its silence, she nodded, offering a word of praise.

“Well done.”

As she delivered this compliment, her fist simultaneously buried itself deep into its already bruised and swollen face.

This time, what trickled from her fingers was no longer foul black, but vibrant crimson.

This punch seemed to shatter the Corroder’s will.

The black viscous liquid steadily receded from its body, its eyes rolling back, until it finally reverted to a plump, young boy.

After delivering two more slaps to confirm it showed no signs of waking soon, the girl turned her gaze towards Baoyu, only to find herself staring down the barrel of a gun aimed squarely at her, met by the Magical Girl’s wary eyes.

“…”

“…”

The nature of a Corroder’s magic differed starkly from that of a Magical Girl.

Baoyu detected no trace of kinship from the girl; instead, during her attack, Baoyu had sensed a chilling, sinister magical energy that forced her paralyzed body to muster a sliver of resistance.

She was certain, therefore, that this girl before her was also a Corroder.

Though she couldn’t fathom the reason for their internecine conflict, there was no doubt that this girl, too, was an enemy.

Despite being held at gunpoint, Baoyu could only discern an unsettling calm and indifference on the girl’s face.

When the girl took a tentative step in her direction, the gun barrel aimed at her subtly lifted, constantly tracking her head.

Baoyu’s stance was clear: should the girl take another step closer or make any sudden move, a bullet hole would instantly mar her beautiful face.

Yet this beautiful monster before her resolutely ignored the warning.

She continued to advance with unhurried steps, vanishing from Baoyu’s sight the instant the gunshot echoed.

The gun barrel pointed at the ravaged alley and ground, but in the night, aside from the unconscious boy lying prone, Baoyu could only see shattered glass scattered everywhere.

How the girl had disappeared and moved without a trace, Baoyu couldn’t glean any clues from the brief skirmish between these two Corroders.

A ghost.

This girl, radiating the magic of a Corroder, was like a specter wandering through the night.

“Clink.”

A faint ‘clink’ nearby drew Baoyu’s gaze, along with the gun barrel, to the ground before her.

Nothing seemed amiss; there was nothing there—

“Thunk.”

A hard object pressed against Baoyu’s forehead.

Her pupils instantly constricted, as the cold metallic sensation against her skin felt as though it could seep into her very bones.

It was her own hunting rifle.

The air itself seemed to solidify at that moment.

A profound silence descended, all ambient sounds fading into nothingness.

The only things she could hear were her own ragged breaths and the uncontrolled pounding of her heart within her chest.

She tried to move, but found herself rigid as a block of wood.

Panic uncontrollably burgeoned within her, spreading relentlessly to every corner of her being, causing her hands to tremble slightly.

She found herself utterly unable to pull the trigger again.

Her instincts as a Magical Girl screamed that the enemy beside her was far more dangerous than she could have imagined.

Even this close proximity enveloped her in an intense chill; she had no doubt that a mere touch of the girl’s hand to her skin could inflict severe frostbite.

Her rapidly dwindling rationality told Baoyu that this suffocating fear was not natural.

This was likely a form of “pressure” (TL Note: A common concept in fantasy literature, referring to an overwhelming aura or presence that can mentally or physically incapacitate opponents.), or perhaps a type of mental attack, through which her opponent aimed to strip her of her will to fight.

Fear intensified with every passing second.

What could she do now?

Her familiar hunting rifle was now clutched in her enemy’s hand, its muzzle aimed directly at her vital points.

The girl said nothing, made no further moves, yet it was this very silence that pushed Baoyu to the brink of despair.

Baoyu could hear the girl’s finger lightly caress the trigger.

With just a little more pressure, her head might shatter.

She needed a chance, a single moment, even a minuscule flaw.

She couldn’t remain suppressed like this; she couldn’t simply await her fate.

Time would inevitably transform her into a puppet of fear, eradicating any thought of resistance.

Her wrist, gripping the gun, was stiff and numb, almost devoid of sensation.

Her muscles trembled faintly, desperately clinging to the last shred of hope in her hand.

But reality was cruel.

As an expression of agony gradually spread across Baoyu’s face, her immobilized wrist finally lost its grip, allowing the revolver to slip from the Magical Girl’s fingers.

Her resistance had utterly failed.

The completely dominant opponent looked down, scrutinizing her weak and helpless form.

With a kick, she sent Baoyu’s revolver flying, while also removing the hunting rifle from her head.

At this point, the Magical Girl had entirely lost her will to fight.

Thus, the unhurried Corroder turned, exposing her back completely to Baoyu, preparing to leave the scene with her captive.

‘Now!’

“Shing!”

Seizing that fleeting blind spot, the Magical Girl, presumed to have lost all ability to resist, reached for the hidden dagger in her pocket.

With lightning speed, she drew it and lunged, aiming for the Corroder’s back.

“Too obvious.”

Before the dagger could even pierce the Corroder’s cloak, her figure vanished into thin air like a phantom.

Baoyu’s backstab hit nothing but air, and she tumbled forward onto the ground due to momentum, her knees hitting the pavement with a dull thud.

All that remained in her ears was the Corroder’s flatly delivered comment.

When Baoyu looked up again, the Corroder had reappeared beside the unconscious, plump boy.

Despite the vast difference in their physiques, she effortlessly lifted him by the collar with a single hand.

“I have no interest in you.

But if you insist on playing with those dangerous toys in your hand, I wouldn’t mind trying them out on this fellow.”

The commotion the Magical Girl made behind her was entirely within her expectations.

To prove she wasn’t joking, she pulled the boy’s body in front of her, shielding herself from the Magical Girl and forming a wall of flesh and blood.

In this situation, if Baoyu dared to fire a shot, whether it would inflict substantial harm on the Corroder was debatable, but the boy’s fleshy body would undoubtedly be torn apart.

Baoyu felt no moral burden in shooting a Corroder, but facing a defenseless human, even one who had just harmed her, she couldn’t bring herself to pull the trigger.

“Who are you?”

“What do you want?”

“Where are you taking him?”

Baoyu didn’t expect the girl to answer her questions honestly, but even if there was a one-in-ten-thousand chance, she wanted to glean some information from her.

Whether the girl was a human wielding Corroder power or a Corroder capable of masquerading as a human, such an entity posed an immense danger to human society.

“I don’t particularly care for the term ‘you all.’ As for the answers you seek, perhaps you should ask your companions.”

As she spoke, the Corroder before Baoyu subtly lifted her head, gazing skyward.

It was unclear whether the Magical Girl’s stalling tactics had worked, or if her own movements had been too slow, but the disruptor had, as expected, arrived.

She still had an opportunity to retreat with her target, but she ultimately chose to stay, for she had instantly recognized the light rapidly approaching her.

The pink light slicing through the night was a familiar sight to the people of Jingping City.

She, too, knew it; more accurately, she understood the meaning behind that light far better than most.

Fearlessness, guardianship, hope, miracles, and—

“It’s you…”

The light plunged from the sky, landing heavily between Baoyu and the Corroder.

Her armor offered a trustworthy back to her comrade, while a faintly visible small round shield in her hand faced the enemy.

People once regarded this slender and diminutive figure as the dividing line between hope and suffering, an iron wall that kept all despair and pain at bay.

The newcomer was none other than the Magical Girl Polaris, who had rushed to the scene upon receiving the news.

“Are you alright, Baoyu.”

“Senior Polaris!”

Polaris’s arrival immediately brought Baoyu a significant sense of relief.

Yet, as she noticed the small round shield Polaris held, which couldn’t even cover her own upper body, Baoyu couldn’t help but recall what Xirang and Polaris herself had once said: the current Polaris could no longer fight as she once did.

“Can you still hold on, Baoyu.”

“I can, Senior.

Be careful… she’s very dangerous.”

With Polaris’s support, Baoyu leaned against the wall and rose to her feet.

A distinct numbness pervaded half of her body, indicating that the previous attack still had lingering effects.

However, she was more concerned that the enemy might seize this opportunity to launch an assault, which would only place Polaris in a more disadvantageous position.

What puzzled Baoyu, however, was that the girl had done nothing in the interim.

She merely watched Polaris’s back in silence, showing no inclination to attack or flee.

“Yes, I understand.”

Polaris picked up the revolver from the ground and handed it to Baoyu, then spoke with a reassuring smile, “Trust me, Baoyu, everything’s fine now.

You did well.

Leave the rest to me.”

She turned to face the Corroder before her, her complex gaze meeting the girl’s shadowed eyes.

“Nor will I allow you to wreak havoc any longer.”

The red-haired guardian bit her lower lip lightly, then uttered the girl’s name.

“Black Mirror.”